Prosper softball begins district play

Correction: A previous version of this story erred in naming softball players in the photo captions. They have been corrected.

Little Elm 7, Prosper 6

The Prosper softball team built an early lead but ultimately lost to Little Elm in extra innings on the road Tuesday, March 7. It was the Lady Eagles first game against a district opponent this season.

Prosper opened the first inning with two runs and scored four more runs later, taking a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning. Little Elm responded with a four-run inning of their own in the fifth and tied the game in the bottom of the seventh.

The Lobos didn't take long to capitalize on their comeback. Little Elm won on a walk-off hit in the eighth inning against Prosper senior pitcher Sam Frommer.

“It was just a lack of focus,” head coach Staci Jackson said. “I'm upset with them, but at the same time I told them we've got to learn from it.”

It was Prosper's first extra-inning game of the season and the second time the team has lost by only one run. The Lady Eagles were held to seven hits – seniors Abby Smith and Natalie Filiatrault each finished with two apiece.

Jackson said she wasn't concerned about the loss after winning nine of their first 12 games in the first three weeks of the season. That included a dominant performance at the Allen Tournament, as Prosper won five straight games and scored a total of 53 runs.

“I still know we had a lot of potential offensively,” Jackson said. “I didn't know it was that much.”

Prosper 16, Newman-Smith 1

Prosper bounced back in a big way on Friday, March 10, defeating Newman-Smith at home. The mercy rule went into effect in the fourth inning.

“Coming off the loss against Little Elm, they were pretty fired up,” Jackson said. “They know we shouldn't have lost that game. We want to protect our home turf.”

Everyone on the roster contributed offensively for the Eagles. Prosper had seven different players with at least one RBI and four players had multi-hit games. As a team, they also drew seven walks and stole two bases on the way to their second-highest run total of the year, all without hitting a home run.

“I talk a lot about baserunning and trying to take advantage of other team's mistakes,” Jackson said. “Even if it's 10-0, we're always trying to take the extra base.”

Prosper scored six runs in both the third and fourth innings. Filitrault led the team with 4 RBIs and junior Skylar Phillips had 2. Senior Brooklyn Reiff led the team with 3 hits in 3 at-bats.

The Eagles also dominated on the mound thanks to pitcher Rachel Eckrote. The junior struck out nine batters in four innings, allowing only two hits and one run. It was her tenth start and sixth win of the season.

“She's been working a lot on striding out,” Jackson said. “She's got long legs and I want her to use them. She stayed focused tonight and pitched well.”

Overall, it was Prosper's largest margin of victory this year. The Eagles look to build on that in two more district games next week, the first at Turner on Thursday, March 16 and the second at home against McKinney North on Saturday, March 18.